I’m not sure if that’s funny or incredibly sad. I think it’s both. It’s definitely confusing

He did that with irons? That’s even more impressive. I just assumed he had some sort of optic

400 feet is pretty far (yards is 3 times farther but I don’t recall which unit of measure they were using). Getting close enough to hit his ear with that weapon, at that distance, and under that kind of pressure is a pretty good shot in my book. I know that isn’t exactly what you were getting at but still, the situation is pretty interesting from a ballistics perspective.

For real. I’ve been saying that since 2020. What the hell has she been up to? I heard more about Mike Pence during his tenure and I got the feeling he was trying to stay out of the spotlight most of the time.

He’s definitely saying it for racist reasons it just seems odd to me that people usually push back on that by saying race had nothing to do with it. It obviously did it’s just not the only factor like he’s saying it is.

He may be wrong in his motives and his word choice but he’s right that the fact that she’s black and a woman was just as important as her credentials when she was picked as the VP candidate in 2020. If you don’t believe that just go read the post primary articles from that year talking about how Biden needed to pick someone not white as his running mate to pull in minority votes. Obviously this doesn’t mean she isn’t also qualified but you’re kidding yourself if you don’t acknowledge the reality that her skin color and gender were both primary factors in her selection. I’m not sure why that’s so difficult for people to say out loud.

I’m pretty sure we could find some Australians willing to hand him over

I don’t take issue with your assertion that they don’t have the votes based on the way they play the game but I don’t agree that Manchin / Sinema / Lieberman are sufficient explanations for their lack of effort. There’s always a convenient scapegoat for failing to do what they promised but at some point they have to own that failure instead of blaming it on a couple people.

Also, the ACA is not a major piece of legislation to anyone outside of Congress. It’s a minor improvement over the completely unchecked shit show we had before but it is fundamentally no different than what we have always had. You’re framing it like they were so close to offering a public option but my recollection of those events is that they cut that from the proposal almost immediately and with little to no negotiation. That’s not fighting it’s letting your opponent dictate terms. Same goes with any number of other strategies and pieces of legislation from the same period or Bidens first 2 years. Dems could have gotten rid of the filibuster and actually fought for progress but they decided not to. That was party leadership’s decision, not Joe Manchin. People don’t give a shit what Dems say they support because they won’t even force a vote on most of it, much less actually implement it.

If campaign financing is the primary consideration then we deserve the shit storm that’s coming.

Convenient excuses. This has been the reasoning used to justify Dems doing nothing for decades. Show me the effort or don’t talk about desire.

If Biden wanted to tax the rich why didn’t he try it when Dems controlled both chambers of Congress? I’m sure it’s more likely to happen under Biden than Trump but from where I sit it doesn’t seem likely to happen at all.

You’re obviously allowed to care and to express that. I hope you don’t hear me saying that I think you’re dumb or anything like that. In fact it’s pretty much the exact opposite. Most of the time when I see people complain about downvotes they’re trolls upset that it hampers their ability to be a troll but you seem like a reasonable person so I am simply seeking to better understand your perspective.

To put it another way I agree with your first sentence but I don’t generally feel like visible downvotes prevents that from happening. I actually think downvotes function to encourage good discussion more often than not. That isn’t true in all cases but it seems easier to be discouraged or get the wrong idea about prevailing sentiments if the dumb comments are just sitting there next to the good comments with no indication that a majority of other users also think they’re dumb.

I mean it was mostly a joke but it’s also semi serious. You seem capable of disagreement without it bothering you much so I don’t get why the number next to a comment is different. Yeah some people use it in a dumb way but that’s true of pretty much everything.

I disagree. Have I ruined your mood now or do I have to actually downvote you for it to work?

I don’t have a strong opinion on whether or not downvotes should be used to signal disagreement but I don’t think there’s much point in debating that because that’s how they are used. It seems like the only options are coming to terms with that or not using sites that have the option to downvote. I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal though. If someone doesn’t know how to disagree with others without it ruining their day then they need to learn that skill anyway.

There’s legitimate uses for downvotes but you seem to take issue with people using it to express disagreement. My question is why does that bother you? There’s lots of reasons why that could happen, some valid and some not. Disagreement isn’t usually supposed to signal that you’re a piece of shit or however else you seem to be interpreting it. It just means the people who read your comment don’t share your view but you don’t even know who they are so who cares. It’s a minor thing. It’s equivalent to telling a joke to your friends and no one laughs. Big fucking deal, life goes on.

That’s beautiful

Call me naive if you like but that doesn’t seem like a direct threat to me. It sounds like him playing into the violent antifa caricature of a leftist they’re always going on about. He’s saying they’re going to win peacably but are prepared to defend their liberties if the evil leftists force them to. At least I think that’s how most of the people he’s trying to reach with those comments would interpret them.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think guys like him have any problem with using violence as a means to achieve their goals, and this is very likely part of the plan to plant the seeds of violence in people’s minds. I just don’t think this is him being so blunt as to state that they want to execute political opponents outright. I could certainly be wrong about that but I don’t think that will happen until they’re already doing it.

I hope you’re right about that but I’ll be legitimately shocked if that turns out to be true to any significant degree.

There are no moderate Republicans. Anyone who calls themselves a Republican in 2024 is a fascist, whether intentionally or not makes no practical difference. They will never ever vote for a Democrat. Calling them reachable voters is so hilariously out of touch that it makes me wonder where you’ve been the last 8 years.